eBay, Kate Spade Opening NY Pop-Up Stores

Four co-branded eBay and Kate Spade pop-up stores will open in Manhattan on June 8; customers in-store will purchase handbags and accessories through tablets, and their orders will be shipped to their homes within an hour.

Ebay and Kate Spade are opening four pop-up stores in New York on Saturday, June 8, which will exclusively sell merchandise from the appropriately named Kate Spade Saturday line. According to eBay's official blog post, "with about 40% of all retail spending in the U.S. now involving some kind of online engagement, interactive glass technology allows retailers to think about cubic versus square feet for their retail shops."

While the timing of the pop-up store promotion is a publicity stunt for the Saturday product line, the actual pop-up stores are proofs of concept for an extremely eBay-friendly retail experience. Customers at the Saturday shops will select their purchases via tablet, pay via Square-competitor PayPal Here, and have their purchase delivered to their home with 60 minutes. According to eBay, any customer in New York City will be eligible for 60-minute delivery, though it's hard to see how this will work for the Kate Spade customers of Queens and Staten Island.

The four shops will be located in foot traffic-heavy neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side and SoHo, Reuters says. Ebay has previously experimented with pop-ups in New York, London, and Berlin.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the pop-up stores would only be open for 24 hours.